ALBERT NAMATJIRA (1902-1959)
Mount Gillen (944 m - 3097ft)
Australia
In Mount Gillen- watercolor, Elder Fine Art Australia
The mountain
Mount Gillen (944 m - 3097ft) is located near Alice Springs, in the Macdonnell Ranges. Australia. 340 meters in elevation from the trailhead at Flynn's Grave to the summit. By car from Alice Springs city centre to Flynn's Grave carpark is 6.5 km; 10 minutes drive. Although it only takes about an hour to walk to the summit, the trail is steep, with a short section of bare hand vertical rock climb. Hence it is not for the unfit nor for the faint-hearted. But the 360 panoramic view from the top is well worth the effort. Not many people outside of Alice Springs are aware of this little gem. If you are visiting or passing through Alice Springs, you really must must and must make the 2-hour round trip to climb Mt Gillen !
The painter
Albert Namatjira born Elea Namatjira, was a Western Arrernte-speaking Aboriginal artist from the MacDonnell Ranges in Central Australia. As a pioneer of contemporary Indigenous Australian art, he was the most famous Indigenous Australian of his generation.
Born and raised at the Hermannsburg Lutheran Mission outside Alice Springs, Namatjira showed interest in art from an early age, but it was not until 1934 (aged 32), under the tutelage of Rex Battarbee, that he began to paint seriously. Namatjira's richly detailed, Western art-influenced watercolours of the outback departed significantly from the abstract designs and symbols of traditional Aboriginal art, and inspired the Hermannsburg School of painting. He became a household name in Australia—indeed, reproductions of his works hung in many homes throughout the nation—and he was publicly regarded as a model Aborigine who had succeeded in mainstream society.
Although not the first Aboriginal artist to work in a European style, Albert Namatjira is certainly the most famous. Ghost gums with luminous white trunks, palm-filled gorges and red mountain ranges turning purple at dusk are the hallmarks of the Hermannsburg school. Hermannsburg Mission was established by Lutheran missionaries in 1877 on the banks of the Finke River, west of Mparntwe (Alice Springs). Namatjira learnt watercolour technique from the artist, Rex Battarbee.
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2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau